The mother of a 27-year-old man charged with causing a crash in July that killed a motorcyclist in Warren, fainted Tuesday after a judge raised her son’s bond to $1 million.

Following testimony in a probable-cause hearing in 37th District Court, Shawn Michael Fontyn was bound over for trial on charges of driving while license suspended causing death, and leaving the scene of a fatal accident. Both offenses are punishable by up to 15 years in prison.

The charges stem from a July 17 multi-vehicle crash in which Timothy David Lynch, 57, of Washington Township, was killed. Warren police have said a Jeep Grand Cherokee driven by Fontyn on southbound Van Dyke crossed the center of the road and collided with a northbound motorcycle driven by Lynch, a retired Army colonel who was heading home from his job as a contract employee at the nearby U.S. Army TACOM complex.

Prior to Tuesday’s hearing, Fontyn had been free for weeks after family members helped him post a $300,000 surety bond by providing property as collateral, according to his attorney.

Advertisement

After District Judge Dean Ausilio bound over Fontyn’s case to Macomb County Circuit Court in Mount Clemens, Macomb County Assistant Prosecutor Derek Miller asked the judge to revoke Fontyn’s bond. Miller said Fontyn has 20 driver’s license suspensions and six convictions for driving with a suspended license, plus two misdemeanor domestic violence arrests.

“The court system gave him numerous chances to clean up his life, to stop driving,” Miller said. “I don’t see how we can trust this individual to not make a similar mistake in the future while waiting for trial up in Circuit Court.”

Defense attorney James Galen, Jr. objected vehemently, saying no new allegations have been raised since Fontyn was arraigned in July by District Judge Matthew Sabaugh, and that his client’s presence in court on Tuesday was proof that he would show up for court hearings.

“He’s truly remorseful (about the incident),” Galen told Ausilio. “He was in tears today when he heard (Lynch’s) family was here.”

With some of Fontyn’s family seated in the front row of the courtroom — and Lynch’s wife and children on the other side — Ausilio boosted Fontyn’s bail to $1 million, telling him: ‘You should not be on the streets. You are a danger to the public.”

After the hearing concluded, Fontyn and his mother, Rosemary, hugged each other. When she realized he was going back to jail, she collapsed. Shawn Fontyn was visibly moved. The woman regained consciousness a short time later and was distraught as she unsuccessfully tried to pull away from relatives to reach her son before he was led away.

“It’s not fair! It’s not right!” she cried.

Galen later told The Macomb Daily he will appeal the bond ruling in Circuit Court. He accused Miller of retaliation and Ausilio of penalizing Fontyn because of his client’s decision to not waive the preliminary exam.

“I think the judge was out of line raising bond so significantly or at all, given the fact that there was no change in circumstances,” Galen told a reporter. “Me and my client and my client’s family are dumbfounded.”

During the hearing, Officer Brian Price testified that he and another officer in the Warren Police Special Operations Unit spotted a dog running near the front entrance of the Royalty House banquet hall, and Fontyn sitting on a curb, hiding behind the bushes near the entrance.

Price said Fontyn was shirtless, pale, sweating profusely and had red marks on his chest and arms. He said Fontyn seemed incoherent, was holding a cellphone, and admitted he was in an accident and complained of hand pain.

“He stated he was calling his dad to come pick him up,” Price said. He said Fontyn claimed the dog had jumped into his lap, causing the accident.

Knocked off the motorcycle, Lynch was run over by a northbound vehicle, police said. The Jeep landed on its roof after colliding with a fourth vehicle involved in the incident.